50 — BRAND

What is brand and why it isn’t a matter of trade mark

I am so unquiet about this word and how it is misunderstood on my country (Brazil). As you might know on Brazil BRAND isn’t a well accurate concept. To make it clear BRAND is bad translated as mark, hallmark or branding name. Of course BRAND isn’t about mark at all.

Here in Brazil people discourage others to buy only because of the mark’s product. If you want to buy nice paints you shouldn’t search for a mark. Maybe some resellers only make their trades by putting their trade mark on that cheap paints.

I don’t need to mention that this rule applies to all area of the trade here in Brazil. You shouldn’t buy your clothes, cars, smart phones or personal computers just by looking for it’s trade mark. Of course it’s right but let’s make a point. the word “brand” does not represent the entire spectrum that includes the word BRAND.

Let’s make an exercise. What do you think when you see the word BRAND instead of “mark”? For me BRAND is much more than the remembering image of a company or a person. A BRAND is a result of hundreds of iterations and interactions over decades or even centuries. You can’t create a mark as Wall-Mart or Coca-Cola or Nike, Apple, GE or Boeing without a compelling behavior to the BRAND.

BRAND stands for authenticity. It represents a struggle to make a personal product and impact to million people all around the world.

What do you think about how could a Tesla car or iPhone appears? It is a enormous effort to make a viable product that impacts people around quality, innovation and purpose.

There is no way to make this kind of products appears just by creating a trade mark. It is a result of many hours, days and years focused on a BRAND.

A BRAND is made of a large group of people, not only one idealistic person but a hope to make something better, to serve much better than before or than any other concurrent.

When you see an iPhone, an Mercedes Bens or an Armani you are highlighting a well defined concept of million of people. A BRAND isn’t owned by a single person of stuff. A BRAND is hold by thousand of million of people as you can see in a stadium.

A soccer or basketball team isn’t property of the board of directos, it make the economy works just because a large amount of people believes on it.

So my point is: a BRAND make everything possible, I mean it can rises one million dollars or save thousand refugees or dying children on Africa.

You need to open your eyes to see the level of complexity that a brand needs to reach to impact the lives of millions of people. A brand can be remembered by it’s exhibition on a TV ad but there will only be one way to make it solid in our minds: a thorough quality job that only reaches our hearts by stated daily.

The brand is visible to the eye, the brand is in our hearts.